Hello beekeepers,I wanted to share with you the gentlest and most elegant way to install a package of bees into your beehive. If you have ever shaken honeybees out of their box, you know it is both exciting and a bit frightening, but it also is a little rough on the bees. We have been employing this new, improved strategy for the last several years, and hope you will give it a try.

First, we readied each hive by putting two frames of honey into each deep, along with the already built-out frames in our two empty hives. Then we just removed the can of syrup (no longer needed) and carefully placed the queen in her little cage and the open box of bees into each hive (having first removed the cork on the queen cage and replaced it with a bit of marshmallow). We then put the lid on and give the bee-girls a couple days to release the queen, and Voila! Happy Bees.

I am excited to report that we have our FLOW hive up and running. As you can see in the photo above, the bees are checking out the new system. We have four FLOW frames in the middle of the deep, with two cut-comb honey deeps on each side. Right on schedule, the bees are beginning to wax up the cracks and we look forward to seeing them fill the frames with honey.

We are trying out a couple new things this year: in addition to running one FLOW hive, we have purchased deeps from Denmark; our goal is to keep our bees more cozy through the damp winter.

Meanwhile, looking in the side peek-a-boo window, the bees are busy drawing out traditional comb, and loading it up with nectar. An unexpected perk: we now have an observation hive, and can watch the bees in action with minimal disturbance. In just two days the workers drew out the second comb and have almost filled both with nectar. We are simply entranced with the show.

In this image, you can see the bees drawing out beautiful wax honey comb

This image is from the brood chamber (in the Sweinty deep); you can see that the queen has been busy.

Did you know that there are more than 4500 species of bees that live in the US and Canada, and worldwide over 20,000 species have been identified?

Many urban dwellers have not had enough experience with backyard pollinators to easily tell the difference between bees and wasps. For me, it is similar to how you can tell a cat from a dog, or robin from a spotted towhee–not only do they look different, but their movements and habits are unique.

You can often ID your backyard bugs by where you find them and what activity they are engaged in. You will find medium-sized golden-brown to black honeybees (photos right) busy flying back and forth between flowers, loading up on pollen and nectar, and zipping back to their hive. Bumblebees (photos left) are generally larger and fuzzier that the honeybee, many with black, orange, or yellow stripes. I consider bumblebees to be the “teddy-bear” of bees, and the most photogenic. Honeybees tend to be sleeker and less hairy than the bumblebees, but both carry pollen on their back legs.

Bumbleebees stage left & honeybees stage right

Honeybee Swarm Swarming honeybees are docile; they have nothing to protect–as they are merely scoping out the real estate in your neighborhood. The honeybee swarm consists of a healthy queen and upwards of about 10,000 of her workers. Call your local poison-free bee-guy to come collect them, and they will be relocated to a good home.

Of all the bees, we know the most about our domesticated non-native European honeybees, not only for their pollination efforts but also for the food, candles, and medicinal products derived from their honey, pollen, wax, propolis, and venom. Honeybees are the outliers in the bee family. They, along with bumblebees, are social insects, which means that they work together in the hive to raise their young and make honey. Most other bees are solitary, do not care for their offspring, and a whopping 70% of all bees live in the ground.

Bumblebee nests can be found in the ground, in abandoned birdhouses, or in attics. Their nests are nothing like the honeybee's neat and tidy honeycomb (top); instead, they look really primitive, and a bit cobbled together (below). The bumblebee queen hibernates over the winter, so bumblebees need gather only enough nectar and pollen to raise the brood each season. Honeybees must store enough honey and pollen to allow the workers and queen to survive the winter.

Popcorn's Dirty Secret" won the 2015 Digital Edge award!It’s no secret we love popcorn. We Americans consume more than 16 billion quarts of popcorn each year. But we’re getting more than we bargained for in all those bowls of popcorn: bee-toxic pesticides.

Bees are dying at alarming rates, and scientists have identified a group of insecticides called neonicotinoids (“neonics”) as a prime culprit in these drastic population losses. The largest single use of neonicotinoids is as a seed coating for field crops (like corn, soy, canola, and wheat). In fact, researchers estimate that 95-99% of all field corn grown in the U.S. comes from seed coated with bee-toxic neonic chemicals.

Neonics are the most widely used insecticides in the world. What makes them different from most pesticides is that they are systemic chemicals, meaning they are dispersed throughout the treated plant, rendering the whole plant toxic. Just as alarming, neonics are shown to last in the environment for years, harming species that the chemical was not designed to kill – like bees, butterflies, birds, and other helpful insects.

Unfortunately, the popcorn industry uses bee-killing chemicals on their seeds, too. That’s why we’re calling on Pop Secret, one of the biggest brands in the industry, to urge them to source their popcorn from seeds that are NOT coated in these harmful chemicals.

Given the countless risks, lack of benefits, and widespread consumer demand for pollinator protection, it’s time for Pop Secret to join Pop Weaver and commit to phasing out the use of neonic-coated seeds for their popcorn. Mythbusting and True Cost

Several weeks ago I reported that one of our three hives had been infested with aerial yellowjackets. I had been hopeful, after a vigilant weekend of using my swarm-capture bee vacuum to suck them up, that they were finished for the summer, but this morning they were back in force...and so was I.This is how they look after being caught in the act, as they leave the hive with their loot: MAD.I do not normally have a charge for these little pollinators, but, it seems wasteful for them to demolish one of my hives as they themselves will be dying off for the winter soon. Only the yellowjacket queens winter-over, and emerge in the spring to start a new colony.

We had four strong hives all season (though one of our hives swarmed in late summer and left us queenless.) Our bees have plenty of honey to get through the winter, so we have harvested one medium (10 frames) of beautiful cut-comb honey. Thank you bees!

The bees and I have been battling yellowjackets, which are invading one hive and eating bees, honey, pollen, and larvae; when large numbers of yellowjackets have stormed the gates it is difficult for even a strong hive to recover.

That red stuff in the image below is propolis, which the bees make from tree sap. Honeybees use propolis to seal up the cracks in the hive, and it is an antibacterial. Humans have used propolis to treat infections and wounds since ancient times and recent studies show that it is resistant to MRSA.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection is caused by a type of staph bacteria that has become resistant to many antibiotics used to treat ordinary staph infections. Honeybees are not only important pollinators of crops–they also supply us with superfoods and medicinals.

This little film is a powerful statement of what is wrong with our regulatory system.

Veteran Colorado beekeeper Tom Theobald uncovered EPA memos that dealt with the long-term consequences of using clothianidin, a neonicitinoid, on the life cycle of the honeybee.

Tom writes, "Do We Have A PESTICIDE BLOWOUT? Clothianidin is agriculture‛s Deep Water Horizon. America‛s farmland is awash in questionable chemicals as surely as the shorelines of the Gulf Coast are awash in crude oil – and for many of the same reasons."

What can you do to protect honeybees and all native bees and pollinators? Do not buy flowering plants that have been treated with neonicsSupport local & organic beekeepers :::::Free Posters courtesy of Nora Wildgen at BeeSwell

How do you tell the difference between a honey bee and a bumble bee? Two of my favorite children's books will turn you into the neighborhood expert:

The "Bumblebee Queen", by April Sayre, is a simple and elegantly told story of the life cycle of the bumblebee. Patricia Wynne's illustrations are lovely, thoughtful, and accurate.

Are you a fan of Ms. Frizzle and her Magic School Bus? If you join Ms. Frizzle and her class to take a trip "Inside a Beehive", you will be amazed at how much information you will learn (and not only about honeybees...) I highly recommend this book to beginning beekeepers of any age.

Author

Tracey Byrne~I spent most of the 1980s and 90s in Alaskaflying airplanes, floating wild rivers, winter camping, raising a wild child, and living off the grid :^)

With my MAT in Advanced Inquiry for Biological Sciences, I've taught K-12 students from north of the Arctic Circle to the Puget Sound Ecoregion, garnering over thirty years experience as a classroom teacher, learning mentor, and private tutor.

Here in Seattle, I am an advocate for environmental stewardship, place-based education, and outdoor play. I share my enthusiasm for birds, bugs, and backyards as a writer/photographer for Pacific Horticulture.